blogpodium: the business of blogging

Although this past weekend was filled with laughter and wine and crazy cab rides and more laughter and more wine and some singing and more wine and TBB brainstorming and tap dancing and more wine, there was some serious business going on too - The Business of Blogging, to be specific :-) Jen and Lindsay brought together a great group of people at a great venue for another super-informative installment of BlogPodium.

Keynote speaker

Keynote speaker Nicole Balch from Making It Lovely talked about how her blog has evolved into a business, and gave us advice on how to monetize our blogs.

 In a nutshell...

• A good starting point for adding small ads is when your blog reaches 10,000 views per month. These are typically small boutique ads (for example, an Etsy shop).
• Approach vendors that you like and want to support, and offer them ad space on your blog. You might even start with a free ad to get things rolling. 
• A good starting point for using an ad network is when your blog reaches 50,000 views per month.
• SheBlogs Media is the place to go if you're a Canadian blogger - they're Canada's first official social ad media network for women and represent 100% Canadian content.

• Sponsored posts are another way to make money with your blog. But don't overdo it, and don't let the brand write the sponsored post for you. Your readers want to hear your voice and know that the post is authentic. Make it clear that a post is being sponsored by a brand - it's as simple as a statement or logo at the beginning of the post that says "Today's post brought to you by....."

Panel discussion

Nicole's presentation was followed by a panel of experts who discussed monetizing blogs from the perspective of both brands and bloggers.

Left to right: Cheryl Kozoriz from Gluckstein Home, Laura Muirhead from Tribal DDB, Lindsay Stephenson from Little House Blog, Christine Dovey from Bjou and Boheme, Leigh-Anne Allaire Perrault from Cityline (moderator)

From the brand perspective, they're looking for the following from bloggers:

• Authority  How well informed and professional are you.
• Context  How does your blog's content relate to their brand.
• Engagement  Do your posts get a lot of comments, what's your following on Twitter and Facebook.
• Reach  What are your blog stats, do you have a strong social media reach.

• Brands are open to different kinds of pitches.
• You don't necessarily have to be a the big kid on the block - smaller niche blogs are appealing to brands, and the style and aesthetic of your blog are also important. 
• Brands want to know who you are and where you're from - identify yourself as a Canadian blogger.
• Authenticity is important.
• How has your blog grown over time, what kind of reaction do you get to your blog posts.

From the blogger perspective:

• If you want to monetize your blog, it's super-important to keep track of and know your blog stats.
• Put yourself out there - approach shops, sellers, and companies that you like and ask them if they're interested in working together on a project.
• Prepare a proposal to submit with your request - be brief and have a plan in mind.
• Make it clear what you're able to offer the brand - for example, an ad above the fold (highest visibility) an ad on your sidebar, X number of sponsored posts, etc.
• Tell the brand why they should want to work with you.
• If a brand approaches you but you don't like the pitch, reply back and let them know what you DO want to do with them.

Vendor Meet & Greet

We spent a couple of hours meeting all the BlogPodium vendors and sponsors. It was a great opportunity to introduce ourselves and connect with brands that want to work with bloggers. I'm already thinking about the projects that I have planned and which brands I'd like to approach about working together! And once again, a huge THANK YOU to PARA Paints for selecting me to be on their Blog Crew. It's an amazing opportunity to work with a Canadian company that has been in business for almost 100 years, and I'm really excited to get started :-)

Jen and Gary from PARA Paints

Thank you to all the other amazing vendors and sponsors!

Thanks to Jen & Lindsay for all the hard work they put into making BlogPodium such a huge success. Hope you ladies have some time to relax now!

The BlogPodium Queens! Lindsay & Jen

And thanks to Nicole, Cheryl, Laura, Christine, and Leigh-Anne for sharing your knowledge and insight.

I'm already looking forward to the next installment of BlogPodium :-) Will you be there?

All images from Mango Studios and the BlogPodium Flickr photostream

totally. awesome. weekend.

Why does this weekend qualify as totally awesome? Well, because…

Road trip with the TBBs I can’t begin to tell you how much fun these ladies are. I’m so lucky to have them as my friends (along with the four TBBs who couldn’t make the trip to Toronto). Thanks Sonya & Maureen & Donna for the laughs, show tunes, tap dancing, Billy Jpel, and helping me find my inner Sherlock Holmes.

Smilebooth sponsored by HomeSense | Photo by Mango Studios

BlogPodium I thought the inaugural BlogPodium back in January was great – BlogPodium #2 exceeded all expectations! The wealth of information, meeting the awesome vendors & sponsors, chatting with blog friends, and the overall energy in the room were just amazing. A huge THANK YOU to everyone who made the afternoon such a huge success, especially Jen at Rambling Renovators and Lindsay at Little House Blog for organizing this great event. I’ll share what I learned about the business of blogging soon – too tired tonight to do much typing!

I’m on the Crew! I’m one of five bloggers selected to be on the PARA Paints Blog Crew! WOOT!

I cannot tell you how excited I am! Well, if you’d seen me jumping up & down when my name was announced, you might have a small idea ;-) This is such an amazing opportunity to work with a great Canadian company to imagine, design, and create some serious room makeovers. Starting with the BAZINGA workout area in the basement that I posted about here using this bright & fun colour palette…

Thank you Gary and everyone at PARA Paints – I’m so excited to be part of your team :-)

More about BlogPodium and my interview with artist Susan Bailie coming soon….

PARA Paints blog crew contest – BAZINGA!

I’ll probably never be a member of a tall ship crew, ‘cause as much as I like to delude myself into thinking I’m adventurous, this is just never going to happen:

Image of Picton Castle via Facebook

However, I’ve painted a wall or two or 163 in my time, so I’m pretty sure I could handle being a member of the PARA Paints Blog Crew! PARA Paints is joining with BlogPodium to give five bloggers a chance at fame, fortune, and paint. Woot! Sure, fame, and fortune would be nice, but it’s the PAINT that has me the most excited! Because with a year’s supply of paint (up to 15 gallons), I could finally finish the basement. It’s currently a very uninspiring yellow with an unfinished ceiling, lumpy laminate floor, and not much pretty at all. The workout area in particular needs a lot of help. This just doesn’t inspire me to want to spend a lot of time on the treadmill:

Very bland and boring – it needs some colour and fun! I want to make over this part of the basement using Penny’s bedroom on The Big Bang Theory as inspiration:

Image via Set Directors Society of America | Paint colours from PARA Paints

It’s such a fresh and fun colour palette, and I’d be way more inclined to go downstairs and work out in a space that’s filled with colours that make me happy :-) I could paint each wall a different colour…

Image via homethelovely.com | Design by Stamberg Aferiat Architecture

Or do something kinda wild and crazy, like zigzags. Is it just me, or is this a totally BAZINGA wall?

Image via I’m Busy Procrastinating

Maybe a funky take on stripes…

Image via Apartment Therapy

Or how about waves…

Image via Davinong

If I was super-artistic, maybe I’d maybe create a mural – love that this one carries up onto the ceiling.

Image via Style House Realty

There’s a lot more of the basement that needs to be made over, but this is definitely where I would start. Although with 15 gallons of paint to use, I might not need to work out anymore to keep in shape! ;-)

A big thank you to PARA Paints for the opportunity to be a part of their Blog Crew. The five winners will be announced at BlogPodium on Saturday, May 26th – will you be there?